Mammoth find: Preserved Ice Age giant found with flowing blood in Siberia

Russian scientists discovered a fully-grown female mammoth with blood and well-preserved muscle tissue trapped in ice in Siberia. The findings
come amid debates on whether the extinct species should be resurrected using DNA.

Scientists say they have managed to find mammoth blood during the excavation of a grown female animal on the Lyakhovsky Islands, the southernmost
group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of northeastern Russia.

The dark blood was found in ice cavities below the belly of the animal. When researchers broke the cavities with a poll pick, the blood came flowing
out. The fact surprised them because the temperature was 10C below zero.

"It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties,” said Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the
Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University as cited by Interfax news agency.

They have taken a sample of the blood and have said that a bacterial analysis is expected soon. They have estimated the female mammoth to be 50 - 60
years old when it died. And she weighs about a ton..!

I do not know what the peeps of ATS think. They do seem to really want to clone a mammoth. But scientists have not yet found enough living cells for
cloning. Despite the good state of preservation of the mammoth.. I do not like idea. It is a strange thought that one day they will be able to bring
these gigantic animals back. And when they do the animal is going to be treated like a circus freak...

I'm not completely opposed to cloning the mammoth. However if there is not enough wild area left to keep Elephants alive and unpoached, how could
there be a safe place in the wild for mammoth(s) to live?

It would not be proper to bring a species back from extinction, only to live in captivity.

I have to say, I am completely in favour of bring these creatures back. The opportunity to learn is just too great. There are millions of hectares of
uninhabited land that cant have changed from the upper-drias period that much. Surely we could accomodate these creatures. I think that any
opportunity to bring something back should be taken, just so we can learn.

Originally posted by fluff007
I do not know what the peeps of ATS think. They do seem to really want to clone a mammoth. But scientists have not yet found enough living cells for
cloning. Despite the good state of preservation of the mammoth.. I do not like idea. It is a strange thought that one day they will be able to bring
these gigantic animals back. And when they do the animal is going to be treated like a circus freak...

It's a fascinating idea.
I agree with you on the aspect of how we would treat this animal, but I trust that we would have a certain reverence for it that would mean it
wouldn't be treated like a chained up bear, it would be in a specially designed enclosure somewhere.

And, as for whether it's "right" or not, I'm of the opinion that if it happens then it's meant to. Ultimately this is evolution, whatever we do
on this Earth we are part of the evolutionary process. It might not be right from an "arrogance of Humans" perspective (which is something I often
find offensive in the way we treat other species and the environment) but it is a part of the evolution of the Earth and our race.

Russian scientists discovered a fully-grown female mammoth with blood and well-preserved muscle tissue trapped in ice in Siberia. The findings
come amid debates on whether the extinct species should be resurrected using DNA.

Scientists say they have managed to find mammoth blood during the excavation of a grown female animal on the Lyakhovsky Islands, the southernmost
group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of northeastern Russia.

The dark blood was found in ice cavities below the belly of the animal. When researchers broke the cavities with a poll pick, the blood came flowing
out. The fact surprised them because the temperature was 10C below zero.

"It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties,” said Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the
Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University as cited by Interfax news agency.

They have taken a sample of the blood and have said that a bacterial analysis is expected soon. They have estimated the female mammoth to be 50 - 60
years old when it died. And she weighs about a ton..!

I do not know what the peeps of ATS think. They do seem to really want to clone a mammoth. But scientists have not yet found enough living cells for
cloning. Despite the good state of preservation of the mammoth.. I do not like idea. It is a strange thought that one day they will be able to bring
these gigantic animals back. And when they do the animal is going to be treated like a circus freak...

Peace
Fluff

edit on 29-5-2013 by fluff007 because: (no reason given)

There is a lab in Scottsdale, Arizona where I live that is trying to clone a male Mammoth. So now, if we have viable female Mammoth cells, then we can
actually create a full zygote and implant it into a modern elephant for degestation.

Russian scientists discovered a fully-grown female mammoth with blood and well-preserved muscle tissue trapped in ice in Siberia. The findings
come amid debates on whether the extinct species should be resurrected using DNA.

Scientists say they have managed to find mammoth blood during the excavation of a grown female animal on the Lyakhovsky Islands, the southernmost
group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of northeastern Russia.

The dark blood was found in ice cavities below the belly of the animal. When researchers broke the cavities with a poll pick, the blood came flowing
out. The fact surprised them because the temperature was 10C below zero.

"It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties,” said Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the
Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University as cited by Interfax news agency.

They have taken a sample of the blood and have said that a bacterial analysis is expected soon. They have estimated the female mammoth to be 50 - 60
years old when it died. And she weighs about a ton..!

I do not know what the peeps of ATS think. They do seem to really want to clone a mammoth. But scientists have not yet found enough living cells for
cloning. Despite the good state of preservation of the mammoth.. I do not like idea. It is a strange thought that one day they will be able to bring
these gigantic animals back. And when they do the animal is going to be treated like a circus freak...

Peace
Fluff

edit on 29-5-2013 by fluff007 because: (no reason given)

There is a lab in Scottsdale, Arizona where I live that is trying to clone a male Mammoth. So now, if we have viable female Mammoth cells, then we can
actually create a full zygote and implant it into a modern elephant for degestation.

The find was made on the New Siberian Islands - or Novosibirsk Islands, off the coast of the Republic of Sakha. Teeth of the creature suggest it
was between 50 and 60 years old. Well preserved muscle tissue was also found. Samples of blood had dripped into the ice beneath the the hulk and
were frozen for thousands of years. Scientists say they managed to retrieve the mammoth blood in a test tube during an excavation at minus 10C. 'It
can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties,' said Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the
Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University.

Bit confused why the picture used is clearly not a mammoth..?
Flowing blood huh? Now that is interesting.. with this find it won't actually be long until they do clone one.. which would be amazing to learn about
these beautiful creatures..

It would be fascinating to compare the behavior of modern elephants to that of mammoths. I'm definitely for cloning mammoth DNA, if possible.

The problem with cloning anything, however, is that you are getting a very specific set of genes; taken to the extreme, we could, for example, clone a
mutant strain and get a terrible misrepresentation of normal mammoth behavior.

It would not be proper to bring a species back from extinction, only to live in captivity.

I agree with you there. If that is done then they will be playing God. By the time that a baby mammoth has actually been cloned and been born. What is
going to be the state of the world then. Like you say there might not be a protected place for them to roam freely...

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